Building climate resilience through energy access? An empirical study on grid connectivity in the Indian Sundarbans

Scholarly debates on energy and climate change have successfully foregrounded mitigation measures, but often overlook the role of energy in climate adaptation. Adaptation is of key importance to building resilience to climate change impacts, but its link with energy access has not been studied in detail. This study aims to address this research gap by examining the relation between electricity access and climate resilience in the context of Bally Island in the Indian Sundarbans. We deploy a qualitative research approach to investigate whether and how the electricity grid, installed to Bally in 2019, aids residents to build resilience against climate change impacts. Our case study highlights the importance of incorporating climate resilience into future energy planning. We find that benefits of electricity access can help people to become more resilient against climate change impacts. However, it is important to understand contextual limitations to building resilience with electricity. Our case study furthermore shows unintended consequences of grid connectivity that can negatively impact peoples’
capacity to build resilience. For example, the untrustworthy electricity grid has led to the decline in popularity of solar PV systems, despite the fact that they are a more reliable alternative to the electricity grid. Therefore, we urge scholars and policy makers to consider the benefits, limitations, and unintended consequences of (planned) electricity measures on people’s capacity to build resilience, especially in areas vulnerable to climate change.